Blazers Eulogy

Here at the Mercury sports desk—it's in the far corner of the office, by the furnace and the intern cage—we've been covering the 2008-09 Blazers season since the very first pre-season game (a 110-81 victory over the Kings in early October), and it's pretty obvious that last night was a great big steaming pile of disappoint. In fact, the best thing to happen on KGW last night was the episode of 30 Rock that came on after the Rockets ended the Blazers' season with a 92-76 thumping.

So while we all hang our heads and tick off the 30 or so weeks before next season begins, we should look back on a pretty damn entertaining season. One where the second youngest team in the league picked up a shocking 54 victories, tied with Denver for first place in the Northwest Division, and reignited a loyal hometown fanbase.

So buck up Blazers fans. While the offseason might be long, the Kevin Pritchard era has taught us that the most exciting things usually happen for this franchise off the court. Perhaps this means trading for a real point guard (Steve Blake's line from last night: four turnovers, two points), resigning blogger Channing Frye, or maybe more draft day shenanigans... who knows? Regardless what happens, I have feeling that come May 1st next year, the city of Portland will still have a basketball team in the playoffs.